I have no idea whether they will be successful or not, but Carbon Motors has an interesting take and re-imagining of the business model for sales to law enforcement.
Federal, state, local, and private security and law enforcement entities had for generations been solid and steady consumers of Detroit’s legacy body-on-frame automobiles, up until recently purchasing rear-wheel drive Ford Crown Victorias and Dodge Chargers. Other models included Chevrolet Tahoes, Dodge Magnums, and a handful of front-wheel drive Chevrolet Impalas. The imminent demise of the Crown Vic, the only model with no relevant consumer market, leaves a quandary for the institutional consumer but an opportunity for entrepreneurism.
Enter Carbon Motors.Carbon (more at Cartype, Wired, Autoblog and Jalopnik) has the goal of building purpose-built vehicles spec’d for law enforcement, creating an environmentally and economically sustainable business model, and carving themselves out a profitable (and near-monopoly) segment of business.
Notable emphasis has been made on optimizing the vehicle towards the mission, both in terms of design and features. Many of the options available on current police vehicles are done post-manufacture, leaving profits on the table for someone else. Carbon addresses this by providing many of these features from the factory, including surveillance cameras, an integrated light bar, hard wired computers, and a plethora of sensors. Another implementation of carbon is in the bulletproof carbon-fiber doors, which should be capable of shedding small arms fire. The available technologies will include a touchscreen command center, LoJack, forward-looking infrared, and license-plate recognition.
The vehicle is motivated by a twin-turbo 300-hp bio-diesel capable inline-6, promising to hustle the E7 to 60 in 7-seconds, certainly competitive with the other V8s out there. Construction and design promises a service life of 250,000 miles. Even more intriguing is their end-of-life process, replete with recycling as opposed to police vehicles entering the consumer or taxi market. All of the above should be available with a competitive purchase price of $20,000-60,000, varying with options.
It remains to be seen if Carbon Motors survives the credit crunch, as manufacturers both large and small have increasing difficulty operating. They quite possibly may end up (at worst) as an aborted dream like the Tucker Torpedo or (at best) as a ‘Checker’. Hopefully they will have an opportunity to both protect and serve as well as innovate and inspire their civilian competition.
Tags: business model, Carbon Motors, Charger, chevrolet, Crown Victoria, dodge, E7, ford, General Motors, Impala GM, law enforcement, Magnum, police
